Occupation Physiologist Spouse Margaret Monk Role Author | Name Geoffrey Dawes Parent(s) Rev. William Dawes | |
Children two daughters and two sons Books Foetal and Neonatal Physiology: A Comparative Study of the Changes at Birth Awards Gairdner Foundation International Award | ||
Geoffrey Sharman Dawes CBE FRS (21 January 1918 – 6 May 1996) was an English physiologist and was considered to be the foremost international authority on fetal and neonatal physiology.
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Biography
Dawes was born in 1918 in Mackworth which is within Derbyshire, but he was brought up in Elvaston where his father was the vicar of Elvaston and Thulston. He had four siblings who were all older than he was. Dawes lived at Thurleston Hall, the vicarage for Elvaston. This hall had previously been the home of William Darwin Fox. His prep school was in the next village of Shardlow, where he studied until he started at Repton School which was still within south Derbyshire. This association with Repton continued as later he would become both a member and later chair of their governors.
Dawes became the director of the Nuffield Institute for Medical research in Oxford in 1948 only five years after obtaining his degree in medicine.
Following his appointment as director Dawes had to decide on an area of research that was worthy of his attention. He decided on fetal physiology as he thought at the time that study of fetuses would allow researchers to study simpler version of more complex adult physiology. This was not the case and Dawes himself became a spokesman for the importance and complexity of this stage of physiology.
Dawes was awarded the Gairdner Foundation International Award in 1966 for his outstanding contributions to medical science. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in March 1971.
Dawes retired in 1985 and took up the post of director of Sunley Research Centre at Charing Cross Hospital, where he worked on both the computerisation of fetal heart rates and on molecular biology. The Nuffield Institute of Medical research which he had directed became part of the Institute of Molecular Medicine.
A keen entertainer with his wife Margaret, he died in Oxford in 1996.
Publications
Legacy
The Geoffrey Dawes lecture is given annually and organised by the Fetal and Neonatal Physiological Society.